Upon an eve I sat me down and wept, <br />Because the world to me seemed nowise good; <br />Still autumn was it, & the meadows slept, <br />The misty hills dreamed, and the silent wood <br />Seemed listening to the sorrow of my mood: <br />I knew not if the earth with me did grieve, <br />Or if it mocked my grief that bitter eve. <br /> <br />Then ’twixt my tears a maiden did I see, <br />Who drew anigh me on the leaf-strewn grass, <br />Then stood and gazed upon me pitifully <br />With grief-worn eyes, until my woe did pass <br />From me to her, and tearless now I was, <br />And she mid tears was asking me of one <br />She long had sought unaided and alone. <br /> <br />I knew not of him, and she turned away <br />Into the dark wood, and my own great pain <br />Still held me there, till dark had slain the day, <br />And perished at the grey dawn’s hand again; <br />Then from the wood a voice cried: “Ah, in vain, <br />In vain I seek thee, O thou bitter-sweet! <br />In what lone land are set thy longed-for feet?” <br /> <br />Then I looked up, and lo, a man there came <br />From midst the trees, and stood regarding me <br />Until my tears were dried for very shame; <br />Then he cried out: “O mourner, where is she <br />Whom I have sought o’er every land and sea? <br />I love her and she loveth me, and still <br />We meet no more than green hill meeteth hill.” <br /> <br />With that he passed on sadly, and I knew <br />That these had met and missed in the dark night, <br />Blinded by blindness of the world untrue, <br />That hideth love and maketh wrong of right. <br />Then midst my pity for their lost delight, <br />Yet more with barren longing I grew weak, <br />Yet more I mourned that I had none to seek.<br /><br />William Morris<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/error-and-loss/
